BIRDS OF PREY 165 
gets it. The mother is beside, over, and under him as 
he drops for it, encouraging him with her calls, and he 
soon responds with a little cry of unmistakable triumph. 
But he is not allowed to eat it on the ground, as he 
would like to do. An imperative call from the adult 
makes the young hunter exert his strength and follow to 
the nearest low perch before he tastes it. You watch and 
wonder at the instinct that prompts such skilful training, 
and the longer you watch the more there is to see. 
364. FISH HAWK, OR AMERICAN OSPREY. — Pandion 
halaétus carolinensis. 
Famity: The Falcons, Hawks, Eagles, ete. 
Length : 20.75-25.00. 
Adult Male: Head, neck, and under parts white; a broad black line 
from bill through eye ; top of head, and nape sometimes streaked with 
blackish ; a few light brown spots on the breast ; back of wings and 
tail dark gray-brown, the latter banded with black and tipped with 
white. 
Adult Female: Similar, but upper breast distinctly spotted with brown. 
Young: Upper parts dusky brown, each feather tipped with white or 
buffy ; rest of plumage like that of adults. 
Downy Young: Dull sooty grayish above, with broad white stripe down 
the middle of the back, and a dark stripe on the sides of the head ; 
crown striped white and dark; under parts whitish, washed with 
brown on the chest. 
Geographical Distribution ; Temperate and tropical America, north to 
Hudson Bay and Alaska. 
Breeding Range: Santa Barbara Islands, and locally along the entire sea- 
coast and on some of the inland lakes. 
breeding Season: April and May. 
Nest : Bulky ; of sticks ; on trees near water. 
Eggs: 2to4; buffy white or deep buff, spotted with shades of brown 
and purplish gray. Size 2.44 X 1.81. 
WHEREVER there are fish there are pretty sure to be 
fishermen and Fish Hawks. Right good comrades are 
